The Effect of Initial Condition of Melt Jet on the Jet Breakup Phenomenon in the Subcooled Water Pool

Abstract

The melt jet breakup phenomenon in a pre-flooded reactor cavity during a severe accident is related to the debris bed coolability. It is important to predict the jet breakup length for the evaluation of the debris bed coolability. A large volume of works on the jet breakup length have been performed. However, the consistency between experiments and correlations was difficult to achieve. Some data follow the Saito correlation (include Froude number in the correlation) and others follow the Epstein correlation (doesn’t include Froude number). The separation of the jet breakup length correlation along the water subcooling was reported based on the experimental data using the low melting temperature materials in our previous works. Since the previous experiments show an unclear jet shape before entering the water pool which could be an uncertainty factor, a slide gate system for a clear jet shape was additionally installed. Experiments were conducted with the similar condition of previous work and different initial condition of melt jet. With a clear jet shape, the jet breakup length in the subcooled water show different tendency following the Saito correlation. To figure out the effect of the entry condition of the melt jet, the jet diameter and the method of estimating the jet breakup length are revisited. Our previo0us experiments show large uncertainties on the jet diameter, leading to the large discrepancy of the dimensionless jet breakup length. Also, early broken jet core is reported in subcooled water cases. Thus, the uncertain characteristics of the jet breakup length analysis is discussed in this paper including the jet diameter and the method to estimate the jet breakup length.